Michael Morpurgo: 'Three arteries were blocked and they wouldn’t let me out of hospital'

Michael Morpurgo may have had a triple bypass recently, but it hasn't stopped him from publishing a new book on the wonders of spring 

Michael Morpurgo's latest book, Spring, is a non-fiction series of observations on the season unfolding around him. Picture: Brodie Lea/PA.

After going to the GP with what he thought was indigestion last year, bestselling children’s author Michael Morpurgo found himself undergoing a triple heart bypass – and an enforced break from writing.

“We all have this cliché that you’ve got pains in your chest and it’s agony. Oh no, I went to my wonderful NHS doctor in Hatherleigh in Devon and I said, ‘Look I think I’m getting indigestion rather too often and it’s rather strange because it always comes in the same place between my shoulder blades.’